Far-right Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Åkesson has overtaken incumbent centre-right Moderate Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in a new opinion poll published on Monday, with an increasing number of Swedes wanting him to join the government.
Sweden is currently governed by a centre-right coalition of the Moderates, the Christian Democrats and the Liberals, with the support of Åkesson’s far-right Sweden Democrats. Although not formally part of the Swedish government, it has been able to negotiate the implementation of its migration policy, among other things.
But according to a recent survey conducted by Indikator Opinion on behalf of Radio Ekot, 18% of respondents would like to see Åkesson as prime minister, while only 17% prefer Kristersson.
Even among voters of the ruling coalition parties, Åkesson is the more popular figure, with 41% compared to the 37% of voters favouring Kristersson.
“This is partly because the Sweden Democrats are growing in public opinion, and Sweden Democrat voters want to see Jimmie Åkesson in office. But it is also because Ulf Kristersson has relatively weak support among Christian Democrats and Liberals,” according to the head of the Indikator Opinion polling institute, Per Oleskog Tryggvason.
Furthermore, more than a third of voters of the governing parties want the Sweden Democrats to join the government.
If you look at the parties individually, 39% of Moderate voters (EPP) want the far-right party to be part of the government, and 59% of Christian Democrat voters (EPP) want the same.
“One explanation may be that Moderate and Christian Democrat voters want to remove the Sweden Democrats’ ability to have their cake and eat it,” Tryggvason said.
The Liberals (Renew Europe), on the other hand, are very sceptical about a government that would include a far-right party, as only 11% of Liberal voters said they were in favour of the Sweden Democrats joining the government.
The tensions between the Liberals and the supporting far-right Sweden Democrats have been no secret since the first moment of the centre-right coalition, and indeed, according to the poll, 36% of Liberals would instead ally with the Social Democrats (S&D).
Social Democrat leader and former prime minister Magdalena Andersson, on the other hand, still has the most overall support with 43%.
(Charles Szumski | Euractiv.com)
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